


Long Road Around

by Skeren



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: F/M, Human Experimentation, Not So Dead Character, Starvation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-10
Updated: 2016-02-10
Packaged: 2018-05-19 12:12:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5967030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skeren/pseuds/Skeren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zack died. Or rather, Cloud believed Zack to be dead. Zack believed Zack to be dead too in fact, but they were both wrong, and years later, an old lab proved it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Long Road Around

**Author's Note:**

> Written October 2007 for Springkink. This was long enough I decided it should have a separate entry too.

Zack was, much as she hated to admit it, a common name. It was a name that uncreative people gave their kids, not that the kids ever ended up being uncreative themselves. Not from what experience seemed to be showing her. The Zack she’d known as a child had been bright, strong, sweet, the kind of guy she wanted to kidnap and hold hostage just so she could spend time with him. 

Cloud had had a Zack too. He hadn’t remembered him, not for the longest time, but when he had it seemed like that guy was something special too. Brave, loyal, determined, a great guy to be a role model for a lost kid and an even more lost experiment. She was pleased that the name ‘Zack’ hadn’t been tarnished in her memories, because even if _her_ Zack had been a SOLDIER, he never tried to hurt her, he never did anything bad to her at all.

The idea that there might not be two Zacks in SOLDIER never occurred to her, and she knew why. Who wanted to think their childhood heroes were dead in a grave somewhere, or worse, dust in the wind without even a grave to call their own? Even if he was the enemy, her Zack had been a hero.

She wished that there were more people like him, and if those people had the same name, so much the better. 

So, when one day her and Cloud were talking, and the subject came up, she went so far as to confide she’d known someone good from the Shinra military as a child. Said that was what let her think an ex-SOLDIER might be safe to be around in the first place. He’d accepted that, and later they’d gone on their ways for a while.

It never came up between them again, but every so often she knew he’d go up to where his Zack had died, and when she was riding in the Highwind with Cid, they sometimes saw him. None of them asked why, and everyone had their own rituals to deal with everything lost in the last decade or more. 

Even her idiot dad had his own ways to cope. 

So when the haze of Omega was over, and the dust was finally cleared for the third, fourth, tenth? ...time, she just answered the call that said more labs were found. They all came when the major things happened, at least, when they could. Usually, she was there, she had nothing better to do most of the time. Her country didn’t need her, not yet, but she tried. This time, most of the lot was either unreachable or just plain didn’t have the time to spare to come out. It was a lab, and unlike many disasters, it was something that really didn’t need them all. 

Honestly, the triplets hadn’t really needed them all, and Vinny had handled the majority of the last disaster all by himself. She’d helped, of course. He’d needed a hand, but she hadn’t been needed in the last of the final moments, even if they’d all been there. And she was dwelling way too much on the past today.

Today it was her, Cloud, Cid and that was about it. Barrett and Nanaki were pretty busy. Someone had to stay with the bar and kids if there wasn’t an impending disaster to send them to Elmyra, so Tifa was out. Vincent’s phone was ‘broken’, and Cid was, honestly, only there because he had to bring them there anyway, but Cloud could have managed _that_ little bit all on his lonesome if he’d _really_ wanted to.

But... she’d talked to him enough to know he wouldn’t go in one those places by himself if he could help it. She didn’t know why. She really didn’t want to. Still, they made her nervous too. 

It was likely why she was thinking about all these things. Or maybe it was the thing, person, they’d found inside. He hadn’t been the least little bit healthy, he’d been older, hair ragged, and surviving through means that were questionable considering that the techs in this place had to have left at least a couple months before.

But the guy was alive. 

He was Zack, and he even grinned weakly at them, more Cloud really, but the shock of seeing him wasn’t lost on her either. 

That was why she was really thinking all these things. She’d avoided the thought and it was really obvious on reflection. Her and Cloud had the same Zack. Not that Zack recognized her right off, and that was just fine with her. Cloud... well, Cloud had plenty on his plate right now, and she knew how to be generous. Really.

She could wait until a bit later to remind her childhood idol of her existence. 

First, of course, they had to get him home.

-o-o-o-o-o-

When they first found him, it was awkward. Not in the social moors kind of way, but in the ‘oh god you’re back from the dead?!’ way that he seemed to be getting from Spike. Poor Spike... not that he’d had it better. _This_ pen he hadn’t had the freewheeling chances to get loose from like in Nibelheim, and gods only knew how much he’d tried. 

He’d been immersed in more mako, on a schedule he hadn’t been able to fathom, and he remembered vague dreams of talking with his girl and seeing Spike in situations he couldn’t remember ever happening in real life. At first, he’d wondered if he lost his mind. After what had happened to the blond, he grudgingly had to admit that it wasn’t exactly unlikely. He couldn’t bring himself to care at the time though.

He ate when they actually remembered to feed him, which... up til the rescue had been a while. Usually, they didn’t go more than a few hours before passing something along, the longest span in the time he’d been there having been without was while he’d been in mako, dropped into an uneasy sleep that he knew better than to risk but had anyway.

Gods, he’d needed rescued, and it looked like the rescuers hadn’t even meant to do it. Which was okay, he hadn’t really expected to see Spike again, even if he’d hoped. He’d had one of the lot that ran the place ranting about the blond enough to know the kid was okay, and that was good. He wanted to get to him, of course, but he hadn’t been as worried when he hadn’t gotten the chances to. 

The kid was safe already, even if the kid didn’t seem to be hunting for him.

So when Spike finally showed... the last thing he’d expected was to be clung to like that. He’d have thought the years would have dampened the grief, knew that the boy likely thought he was long dead... but here he was, upset over the whole thing. Then again, he supposed he’d be overjoyed if they were reversed, so that might have been it. 

Spike wasn’t alone when he arrived, having crashed in with a blond man that was abrasive but refreshing, and a girl that tickled on the edges of his mind with something that he just didn’t have the energy to hunt for. He was hungry, Spike was upset, and he was getting out of the damn white room. _Those_ things had all the priority. So, in a bizarre parody, a reversal of the prior reality, Cloud helped him walk out of there, the other two sticking close, one behind as the other went ahead, and he finally saw open sky again for the first time in practically forever. 

It was all he could do not to fall over from trying to see the sky all at once, and he took a deep breath, reveling in the sense of freedom. The technicians had obviously been gone from the lab they’d taken him through. He’d been abandoned.

He wouldn’t be missed, and he wouldn’t be hunted. The thrill of knowing that alone was almost enough to make him dizzy, because it had been so long... back to before the year of the fire and betrayal, since he had had the chance to feel something like that. And now... he had the chance. 

Finally. And Spike was right with him... or maybe that was a few steps ahead.

The ship they were on wasn’t making the blond air sick. Once he was settled, he wasn’t the one he stayed with, going to talk to the other blond who had brought him here, clearly the ship’s owner and maybe something more to the blond. It was in the posture. There was a lean to the blonds, a familiarity that spoke of more than just friendship. 

Life threatening situations had to have been there, it was in the relaxation of the shoulders, the posture he’d never seen so at ease... Cloud had gone and grown up on him and he wasn’t, he realized in a jarring rush, the one that Cloud depended on anymore. It didn’t fade his smile when the blond broke off his talk to come back to him, but it made him look closer. He was older, he didn’t look it so much as feel it... and he’d missed that. 

Maybe he should have tried harder after all? 

Too late now in any case, and he felt a sinking sensation as he realized that he didn’t know what to do with himself if Cloud didn’t need him anymore. But, now wasn’t the time for that. That was for later. For now the blond _did_ still need him. He needed to know he was alive, he needed to know he was real... he needed to know he wasn’t going to go raving insane any second now. 

The last made a chill spread in his chest, but he understood, ate the food he was given and reassured the blond when he was awake that he would be just fine, thank you. He was glad that Spike finally had more friends, so he tried to urge him not to spend every waking moment in his presence, even if the familiarity of him was bracing. Likely to them both.

He’d almost forgotten the woman that had shown up with them during the rescue until she showed up again a few weeks later, when his clarity was better and Cloud had been chased away to get some sleep. He was feeling well enough to realize who she was, this time, and why she’d been as surprised to see him as Spike had been. 

It was the little ninja. She’d grown up too. At least, he really had been under a rock these last years. He had an excuse for missing the fact she’d turned into a looker.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Even he wasn’t dense enough to miss it. As Zack had gotten better, Yuffie had been around more. It wasn’t unlike her, but it had taken a bit before he realized that she really wasn’t after his materia. She also wasn’t after anything else that he’d had for any decent span of time. No, after a while, he realized she was after Zack.

He wanted to ask her why, of course, because what interest could she have in an old SOLDIER they’d found in the labs? That was his friend, someone he’d felt bad about the death of. It was someone he cared a lot about, owed everything to... so what did Yuffie have to do with it?

He hadn’t understood it, and he hadn’t wanted to be direct about it, not at first... but there were signs they were getting close, and it was more disorienting that there were signs that they hadn’t started from scratch. He was oblivious, yes, he’d never denied that, but he wasn’t a complete rock. So he’d finally given in and asked. Both of them.

The answers hadn’t been the same, but they also hadn’t been different. Zack had smiled at him, a wry look instead of an amused one, and asked if she’d ever tried for his materia when they first met. When he’d nodded, he’d just shaken his head and said that he supposed that he hadn’t had that much influence after all when she’d been a kid.

Yuffie’s answer had simply been ‘When I was small, a SOLDIER saved me once’ and she’d smiled, giving him a hug before vanishing off to another room in the house.

Now, he was scared, because those two were getting closer, and he just couldn’t find the right connection to Zack anymore. He tried, they both did, but the pieces just didn’t seem to line up. There were hints and edges that were too jagged and raw, too many expectations, or sheer lack thereof, for their opposing views of each other to mesh. 

They were trying, but Yuffie seemed to be succeeding where he was failing, because he knew it wasn’t Zack. He thought he’d finally gotten over the deaths, not forgotten them, but moved on, but now that Zack was here, all he wanted to do was hold onto him, and he was slipping away before he could even figure out how.

He would never grudge the man being happy, he’d seen as much hell as he had over the years... but he’d never thought this distance would exist, that there would be a gap there, and he’d always had the idea that if he’d had a chance to do it over, he’d do it all right. 

He’d never thought that he would be back to the place of looking in, and this time he had an invitation to come inside... he just wasn’t sure how to get in the door. 

-o-o-o-o-o-

She was worried about Cloud. She had remembered Zack. When she’d seen him she almost had to quell the urge to order Cloud to take him somewhere else. He hadn’t caused what happened in Nibelheim. He’d rescued her Cloud. He’d done so many good things, she was appalled at herself for the reaction. 

At least he’d been asleep and hadn’t seen it. As it was she wasn’t going to forgive herself for thinking it, not when Cloud had been so uncertain for those first few weeks, fretting at the man's bedside like an overwrought lover while he'd gotten better from the malnutrition, had gotten to the point where he could walk without help.

It had kept Cloud away, but he had come back eventually, and Yuffie seemed to have slipped in during those few minutes where Cloud hadn’t been looking. The few minutes where none of them had been looking.

She didn’t see things like they did, and she knew that, but she couldn’t understand why Cloud was so upset. Zack wanted to stay here, he was making friends with the others, and possibly even going a few steps further with their youngest companion from the meteor days. Thus, she didn’t understand why Cloud was upset. Zack wasn’t going to leave, and Yuffie may be a thief, but she wasn’t blind.

Shaking her head, she turned her attention back to the bar. She had to open soon, and that wouldn’t keep, the others would.

-o-o-o-o-o-

They were both starting to drive her batty. Cloud was being all mopey and weird, while Zack looked like someone had kicked him a few times. She didn’t even mean that in the sparring way either! 

So, clearly they needed to talk. She had the idea this was all her fault, but hey, she had a right to be here too and she knew they both knew it, so maybe it would’ve happened anyway and she just made it go faster. Either way, it was massively irritating and she wanted them to kiss and make up or something already.

Thus, the next time she caught them into a room together, she darted in and locked the door behind her, making a sound of victory at them as she barred the exit. “Now! Now you both shall stop the emo!” 

“Um, Yuffie? What are you doing?” She’d startled them, and she couldn’t help but grin at the fact she had, but she didn’t let it stop her from leaning on the door and crossing her arms. 

She would answer the question though. “You two need to quit already. See, look, I have this mundo crush on Zack there. I think Cloud might too or something, which is cool, but he’s been massively mopey and the downer is totally killing me here.” She paused, giving the tense blond a look and sigh. “And that sucks. So I want you two to knock off the ooey gooey sads. If it goes there it goes there, and if not, oh well. So, talk.”

Zack gave her an incredulous look before glancing over at Cloud, who seemed ready to book it even if she was in the way. Fooey. She was all braced to cling to the door frame before Zack finally spoke. “Spike. I’m sorry.”

The blond had made it about halfway to the door, and her, before he paused, his whole attention immediately diverted to the black haired man as soon as he registered the words. Thankfully. “What?” He also seemed a little shocked if she was any judge.

“I said...” Zack got up then and moved to stand right in front of the blond, meeting his eyes. “I’m sorry. I could have been there these last years, and I couldn’t figure out how to get back to you. It’s my fault we have this huge gap. Hel’s grace, if I hadn’t gotten myself knocked something nasty up on that cliff, we wouldn’t have been separated in the first place and you wouldn’t have had to go through whatever horrors you had to without me. So... I’m sorry. Real sorry Spike.” By the time he finished talking, she’d had to start to lean towards them, because she almost couldn’t hear the words at all.

That meant she was in the perfect position to twitch when Cloud up and hollered. “No!” the blond was already shaking his head, and she resisted the urge to sigh at them. “No, Zack. If you’d left me there and run, you could have come back and gotten me. You almost died up there because of me, I thought you _had_ , so don’t you dare go and apologize to me for that. I missed you, but I never blamed _you_.”

“Spike, I _did_. I ran and you had to come to me, remember? It didn’t do any good and... well, I don’t want you apologizing to me either, and I know you want to. I recognize that look. We... I guess we just needed to get this out in the air. I mean, fuck Spike, you don’t even need me around here anymore. I’m screwing up the cozy niche of a life you made yourself.”

“No! You think... You really thought that? I _missed you_. You have no idea how much I missed you. We have a lot we need to talk about here if you think that. Seriously. Lots.” He looked to her, meeting her eyes. “Yuffie... Could you?”

She read the question there and nodded, pushing away from the door to duck out of it, closing it behind her so she would know the second they were done. She may want to hear it all, but it wasn’t for her to listen in. Not when she went to so much trouble to get them to work it out in the first place.

-o-o-o-o-o-

“You guys gonna be better now?”

Considering she was her, it was no shock that she was waiting by the door when they came out, both much calmer and more relaxed with each other than when they’d gone in. Spike glanced from her to him before just giving him a lopsided smile and silently excusing himself to go. “Yeah.”

“That mean I can finally get down to getting you interested in doing the dirty without feeling guilty about it?”

The question was asked in the same solemn tone as the first, and it was only when his gaze jerked to her that he realized she meant it. Still, he treated it like a jest, for the time being. “I dunno, what kind of dirty are we talking about here?”

She shrugged, pushing off the wall and coming to stand in front of him, a little grin crossing her face. “I dunno, I’d think of something though. Still, am I clear to try?”

“I think I can safely say yes to that now.”

“Great! We’ll figure out how to wiggle Cloud in later if we need to, okay?”

He nodded, a smile crossing his face for the first time in nearly an hour, and he looped an arm over her shoulders. “Alright. But when we get that far, I got a plan.”

“Sounds good to me. Now, I’m hungry, and I think Marlene got stuff from Elmyra for dinner.”

He paused, thoughts flitting to his dead ex-girlfriend's mother, but he quickly focused back on the here and now and started them down the stairs to the kitchen. “Sounds good to me too brat, let's see if they left us anything.”

“Course they did, how could they not wait for _us_?”

He knew that innocent tone. “You hid the food, didn’t you?”

“You bet your butt I did.”

Whatever else happened in the future, at least he wasn’t going to lose his friend in the process. Though, he had the feeling he was in for a crash course in group diplomacy on behalf of Yuffie. 

Still, that didn’t seem all that bad at all.


End file.
